Danny, We Hardly Knew Ye

We commented here on the end of Daniel Okrent’s tenure as Public Editor of the New York Times, and the parting shots he took at Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd and William Safire. Krugman is not one to take criticism lying down (or any other way), so he replied to Okrent, which triggered a dialogue that you can read here.
Krugman’s efforts to defend himself against the charge of slicing and dicing, and flat-out misrepresenting, economic data in order to support his far-left political positions are, I think, lame, but what really jumps out at me is the intensity of Okrent’s apparent loathing for Krugman. Consider the following paragraphs:

This was the first he heard from me on these specific issues partly because I learned early on in this job that Prof. Krugman would likely be more willing to contribute to the Frist for President campaign than to acknowledge the possibility of error. When he says he agreed